Calling your Senator or Representative STEP-BY-STEP:

Tell the
receptionist:My name is [NAME] Please direct
my message to the health staff:

I
am asking the Senator to amend the CMS ruling to restore reimbursement rates for
Bexxar and Zevalin to 2007 rates during 2008. I / my friend
/ my loved-one needs this invaluable
treatment for lymphoma - a common and sometimes fatal blood cancer.
ALSO Copy your message to our Group along with your name, city and
state ...
Email to bdeparry@gmail.com ... and we will bring a copy of your comment to Washington
(This information will be put to no other use)

ALSO
Copy your message to our Group along with your name, city and
state ...
Email to bdeparry@gmail.com
... and we will bring a copy of your comment to Washington(This information will be put to no other use)

BACKGROUND

Regarding CMS Errors and the Agency's Apparent Indifference
to the Survival of Lymphoma Patients and the Future of
Radioimmunotherapies

We believe the matter described within directly
affects the survival of patients with b-cell lymphomas, and
that (as ASH has written) the ruling will have a chilling effect on
the development of future drugs for all cancers.

So we ask that you take time to review the relatively concise
background information within; noting that we are very confident in
our assessment that inaccurate data sources and inappropriate methods
by CMS have resulted in payment rates to hospitals for RIT that are
grossly inadequate.

The CMS ruling, if let to stand, will have grave
consequences to patients.

Our Senators, particularly those charged with
oversight over CMS, must be made aware of the errors and the
consequences. It's our understanding that It is not yet too
late, but that time is running out for patients who depend on this
irreplaceable treatment option.

BACKGROUND:
"The payment rate as set forth in the ruling cuts payment for
Bexxar to approximately one half its cost. Similar issues apply to
Zevalin. This will force hospitals to choose between subsidizing or
abandoning the treatment.

... The latter is most likely, as both the American Society of
Hematology (ASH) and the American Society of Clinical Oncologists
(ASCO), and others, have pointed out in letters to CMS during the
comment period prior to the final ruling. ASH, in fact, states that

"It (the ruling) will eliminate one of the few treatment options and
perhaps the only treatment option for some patients with non-Hodgkins
lymphoma who have failed chemotherapy treatment."

CMS, in its final ruling, disputes this fear, saying
that "given that the Medicare population is such a dominant
portion of the population to which these services are targeted, we do
not believe that hospitals will cease to provide the service."

With all due respect, how does CMS expect hospitals to provide any
service for which they will lose money?

Additionally, CMS warns that "under 42 CFR 489.53(a)(2), CMS
may terminate the provider agreement of any hospital that furnishes
this or any other service to its patients but fails to also furnish it
to Medicare patients who need it."

Surely no hospital will jeopardize its provider agreement. Thus, if
these treatments are unavailable to Medicare patients, they will also
be unavailable to anyone else.

As we understand it, the final reimbursement rate is based on previous
hospital claims. CMS acknowledges that many claims were "incorrectly
submitted" and "some represented unusually low
costs." The agency also acknowledges that some claims were "incorrectly
coded" and thus "unlikely to represent claims for
treatment with the products described as A9543 and A9545"
(Zevalin and Bexxar respectively).

Although CMS removed these "likely incorrectly coded claims in
the rate setting process," CMS cannot be sure which claims
were coded correctly and which were not. Using data that was known to
be flawed, the new rate could not have been set accurately.

Furthermore, under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and
Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), the BEXXAR Therapeutic Regimen was
classified as a "specified covered outpatient drug" (SCOD)
and the statute directs that CMS must pay for SCOD's at either "the
average acquisition cost for the drug for that year" or "if
hospital acquisition cost data are not available, the average price
for the drug in the year established."

I am not an attorney, but the statute does not seem to authorize CMS
to set rates based on an average of claims, much less ones that are
known to be inaccurate. The methodology used to set this rate was
flawed, incorrect, irresponsible and may not even comply with the
statute.

One thing is certain. The new rate will have long term and devastating
consequences. It will undoubtedly condemn these drugs to medical
history. Millions of dollars and years of hard work will have been
wasted, and several scientists and organizations fear that it will
create a disturbing disincentive for the development of future
innovative therapies.

...
ASH states, "It (the ruling) could have a chilling effect on
the development of future drugs and radiopharmaceuticals for treating
other forms of cancer and other diseases."

As a representative of many thousands of lymphoma
patients and caregivers, I can add that we are fearful and confused by
this ruling. We also feel that the system does not provide an adequate
forum to express our concerns and to address the methods used by CMS.

It's also important for the public, our representatives, and the media
to know how efficacious RIT can be, even in heavily pretreated
patients so we have attached a link to our letter to CMS which
includes abstracts on RIT showing it's efficacy in pretreated
patients.

On a personal note, I believe that my spouse, Joanne, would not
be alive and disease-free today - 3 years in remission with no
evidence of disease - without radioimmunotherapy. Joanne was diagnosed
in 1996, her first remission from CHOP chemotherapy lasting only 6
months. Importantly, durable complete remissions in a sizable
percentage of patients with recurring disease have been reported
across multiple clinical studies.

It's our understanding that if the CMS ruling is not amended within
weeks it cannot be done later. For
this reason we bring this matter to your urgent attention, because
only a Senator has the power to influence CMS at this juncture …
noting that CMS has not provided a venue for public comment on the
final decision and has not answered our calls or letters.

Finally, we note that it is possible for CMS to amend the ruling, as
it has been done at this stage for PET imaging.

We assure you that your constituents will very
grateful for representing cancer patients in this urgent matter.We remind that one in three men will get a serious cancer in
their lifetime, and one in two women.Thus, this ruling, based on inaccurate data and methods, if
left to stand, will have negative consequence on every American
family.

You might tell
the receptionist:My name is [NAME] Please direct my
message to the health staff:

I
am asking the Senator to amend the CMS ruling to restore reimbursement rates for
Bexxar and Zevalin to 2007 rates during 2008. I / my friend
/ my loved-one needs this invaluable
treatment for lymphoma - a common and sometimes fatal blood cancer.